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Mozilla breeds Firefox for Palm HP webOS

Homes in on Symbian

Mozilla developer Dave Townsend has released a very early test version of Firefox for the Palm webOS – the mobile OS now owned by HP – and the open source outfit is considering a version of its Firefox Home syncing app for the Symbian platform.

Earlier this week, the open source outfit announced that Townsend had released a Firefox developer build for the Palm Pre, calling the fledgling mobile browser PreFox. At this point, PreFox is a one person operation, so it's not yet an official Mozilla project. And Townsend tells The Reg that PreFox is "not something that Mozilla will be supporting now or in the near future."

Based on the existing Fennec mobile Firefox browser – available for Nokia's Maemo platform and in alpha for Android – the PreFox test build offers multiple tabs, session restore, the ability to remember cookies and passwords, Firefox Sync, Mozilla's familiar Awesome bar, and support for add-ons. It does not include the new JaegerMonkey Javascript engine extensiom, Electrolysis process separation, or hardware acceleration.

Separately, Mozilla appears to be planning a version of Firefox Home for Symbian. "Any Symbian developers interested in working on a version of Firefox Home for Symbian? DM/Email me for details," reads a tweet from Mozilla developer Ragavan Srinivasan.

Firefox Home is a standalone version of Firefox Sync, the browser bookmark-syncing service formerly known as Weave. Home was originally developed for the iPhone because Steve Jobs won't let third-party browser engines on his holy handset.

Home provides remote access to your Firefox browsing history, bookmarks, recent tabs, and "Awesome bar" – the Firefox address bar that suggests sites based on where you've surfed in the past. In short, it lets you tap your desktop Firefox setup without installing a mobile Firefox browser. ®

Update: This story has updated with comments from Mozilla developer Dave Townsend, to make it doubly clear that Prefox is not supported by Mozilla.